


For The Ones We Love

by SaintTinz



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: A Different Kind Of Beginning, Before The Storm, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-09 13:55:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5542430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintTinz/pseuds/SaintTinz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How can Max have just spontaneously developed rewind powers?</p><p>Well, maybe she didn't...</p>
            </blockquote>





	For The Ones We Love

**Author's Note:**

> Could you find the courage to protect the ones you love?
> 
> Are you strong enough to endure any trial if it meant you could save them?

Max laid in her bed and desperately hoped the world would leave her be for awhile. Crying wasn't an option anymore, all her tears had been spent throughout the week and she had none left to use. They came when she was ushered out of the bathroom by a strangely misty-eyed security guard after Nathan had... shot her.

 _"I can hardly think her name without the guilt stabbing at my stomach"_  .

They came after she met up with Joyce at the Two Whales and was given a box of Chloe's things. The older woman who, for as long as Max could remember, had always been so strong, now looked broken and defeated. She couldn't bear to look into those tired, accusing eyes and read what she was already thinking, " _you could have prevented this Max, it is all your fault_ ".

She needed no reminder.

She didn't recognize most of the items in the box, " _I guess that's to be expected when you haven't known someone for five years"._ But when she picked it up and heard the sound of William's old camera rattling around at the bottom, the tears couldn't be stopped, and she had to use her small fist to stifle a sob, " _you can do this Max, just make it back to your dorm room, it's not far now"._

They came on that sunny Friday morning, when she went to the lighthouse before her funeral. Running her fingers along the carving in the tree stump that read " **Max+Chloe BFF Pirates 2008** ", and seeing the map where Chloe marked their tree fort, so they could always find each other in case of emergency. " _It's an emergency Chloe, but I can't find you anymore"._ She sat down on that weather-beaten bench like they used too, and cried until no more tears would come.

The last of them came when she stood silently in front of her best friends coffin, and she realized that she didn't know the girl in it.  _"I could have called her, I could have prevented this, if I wasn't such a fucking coward"._

Now she stared at the ceiling of her room without blinking. Too exhausted to move but too tired to sleep. She imagined what her week would have been like if she'd called Chloe before she'd seen her in the bathroom on Monday. " _I watched her die and I didn't even know who she was, her best friend was in the bathroom with her, but she died alone"._

She finally closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, her last conscious thought being " _what I wouldn't give for this week to never have happened"._

  

* * *

 

She lazily opened her eyes, and registered the sickly-sweet smell of garbage.

" _Are they cereal? Who would play a prank at a time like this?"_

As she looked around her some more, she was able to take in her surroundings more clearly.

" _W-what is this, a junkyard? No, I was in my bed at Blackwell, I was trying to fall asleep after the funeral..._

Suddenly, like a sucker punch, a fresh wave of grief wracked her body, leaving her heaving on the ground.

" _Not again, how can I even ever think of her now?"_

"It hurts, doesn't it?"

Startled, Max looked up to see a girl lounging on a rusted old car. She was beautiful, around Max's height, with a blue feather earring dangling from one ear, and a plaid shirt and jeans combo that Max could only describe as badass. " _That's the kind of outfit I could never pull off"_ she noted wistfully. There was something about her though, an air of confidence tinged with the humility of someone who had learned of their own mortality, and a sadness behind her eyes for just a moment whenever she looked at Max.

"It should hurt Max. All that guilt, every thought of ' _if I'd only called her, this might not have happened'_ , those feelings are well deserved, but believe me when I tell you it could be worse.

"Who are you?" Max asked the girl anxiously.

"You've never met me Max, I'm sorry to say you never really will either. But I know all about you. We had a mutual friend you and I, and she used to tell me stories of all the trouble you two would get into together when you were younger."

"You mean Chloe?" Max asked curiously.

"I do Max. You weren't here to see it, but after you left Arcadia Bay, it was the final straw. Chloe was totally alone, and she shattered into a million unrecognizable pieces. One piece reflected all the punk-rock albums you didn't recognize in the box of her things. Another piece was the beautiful blue hair you never got to see unstained by blood. One was cigarettes, another was weed, yet another was meaningless sex with strangers. These were strewn all over when I found her so all she had was her pain, her loneliness, and her abandonment issues. Do you know that she felt like everybody left her life because she wasn't good enough to keep them around?"

Max listened to her words as the tears silently rolled down her face.

_"My god Chloe, I-I never even knew... what did I do to you?_

"It became up to me to pick up all the pieces, and try to build a whole person again. I'm not complaining either, I loved Chloe. Maybe not in the same way that she loved me, but I loved her nonetheless. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there for her either."

Max noticed the bitterness in her tone when she ended.

"What happened to you?"

The girl pondered the question for a moment.

"A mistake. Something that never should have happened and something that I hope will never happen again if there's someone who can do something about it. What happened to me isn't important anymore Max, what is important, is what it did to Chloe. She was back to square one, completely alone, and now thinking I might have abandoned her too. You might find out some things about me in the coming days Max, and not all of them good, but know _this_ at least; I would never willingly leave Chloe, she was my best friend too, and leaving her as alone as she was when I found her, is something that would happen over my dead body, which I suppose is a bit ironic..."

"But why are you telling me all of this!" Max asked panickedly 

"Because you have a choice ahead of you Max, close your eyes."

Max obeyed, and suddenly felt the world spinning around her. The first thing she registered was the sting of hot rain, slamming into her skin. She opened her eyes and found herself staring down a tornado taken straight out of a nightmare.

" _The lighthouse again? I was only here a few hours ago at most, but it looked nothing like this."_

 Max tore her eyes away from the storm, and noticed the girl leaning against the lighthouse, now considerably paler and a trail of cloven hoofprints leading up to where she was standing.

"Take it in Max, you caused this... or rather will cause this, depending on what you do."

"How can I have done any of this? I've hurt enough people already, I can't be responsible for this too. I don't understand what's going on!" Max yelled over the storm.

She looked around desperately, glancing at the ' **Max+Chloe BFF Pirates 2008** ' carved into the stump with the word ' **LIAR'** scratched over it. Quickly rubbing her eyes, she instead saw ' **Max+Chloe BFF Pirates ~~2008~~ Forever** '. 

"Then let me explain" the girl answered fiercely.

"You've lived your whole life timidly Max. Never challenging what was taught to you, never standing up to make the hard decisions we all have to make. You consider yourself a good person, but you only help when your fear doesn't forbid it. You've seen this week where that's led you. Your best friend died alone, believing in her heart that you didn't give a shit about her anymore, along with everyone else in her life. You know this, and it wouldn't change a damn thing. You would go back to an even more reserved, timid version of yourself and let fear consume your life. Well I'm offering you a choice."

_"I know everything she's saying is true, but how could she possibly know any of it?"_

The girl smiled as if hearing her unasked question.

"There are forces in this world Max that we don't understand, the only ones that did died off long ago, leaving nothing but some trinkets of an age gone by to remember them. Even they only had the slightest idea of what power this land holds, but they knew enough to know its risks, and to make sure no one could ever abuse that power they let all its secrets die with them. Yet every now and then, someone who has the potential to be worthy of it comes along and awakens something ancient, but it comes with a cost."

"Did you have this power?" Max asked the girl cautiously.

Max saw a quick flash in the girl's eyes before smiled again.

"That doesn't matter Max." She answered.

"What matters, is that you have a path ahead of you, should you decide to walk it."

"You can answer no if you like, you'll wake up in your bedroom with no knowledge of our conversation, and life will go on as normal. Chloe will be dead, and you will live out your days peacefully, but will always question what would have happened if you had contacted Chloe, and you will never meet another person like her. You will mature, and become a stronger person than you are now, but you will always be timid, always asking 'what if' instead of finding out."

"Or"

"You can get the opportunity to change the world as we know it. It will be the hardest week of your life, and there will be scars from it that never heal, but you will have the chance to save Chloe, as well as save yourself."

_"What she's talking about... could I actually do that? I'm no superhero, I'm just Max Caulfield, the shy, cliche geek who can hardly talk to people, let alone save them... but if it's for Chloe, I have to try, I can't leave things like this, I won't."_

Steadying the trembling of her voice, she answered.

"Yes, if I can have the chance to make things right, I-I'll do anything."

"Are you sure about this Max?" The girl spoke warningly.

"If you choose this path, no matter what happens it will be a bitter end, but I can promise you one thing. You will find the strength to see it through, and you might not have to do it alone."

"I choose it." Max answered determined.

"Then close your eyes one more time Max, and save her for us both."

 

* * *

 

Monday, October 7th

7:00 AM

* * *

 

**"Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep"**

_"...is it time to get up already? I swear to dog I'm going to kill Warren for keeping me up until 2 talking about 'Planet Of The Apes'. I know the drive in is showing it this week, I'll bet he's gonna ask me on a... date. Fantastic._

Stretching, she rises out of bed.

_"How on earth did a leaf get in my hair, I have to be more careful with that, or one of these days I'm gonna find a squirrel. Oh well, time for another boring week at Blackwell I guess. At least I have Mr. Jefferson's photography class, though I wish something more interesting would happen for once._

Stepping out of the girl's dorm, Max takes a deep breath of autumn air.

" _Time to be an everyday gee-I mean hero, here goes nothing Max."_

**Author's Note:**

> My first fanfic that I didn't just pump out in an hour (this one took almost two!) So any and all feedback/criticisms/making fun of my hair are welcome.
> 
> Enjoy the story.


End file.
